


Curtain Call

by canufeelthemagictonight



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Character Death, Drabble, F/M, Friendship/Love, Gen, I kill off all the survivors, Illnesses, Joey isn't mentioned because idk what canon is going to do with him, Old Age, Sad, Tearjerker, but don't worry they all live long and fulfilling lives before they snuff it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:33:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24112849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canufeelthemagictonight/pseuds/canufeelthemagictonight
Summary: Even survivors have to die.The eight surviving YouTubers go, one by one, into the night they once escaped.An Escape the Night one-shot.
Relationships: Colleen Ballinger & Bretman Rock, Colleen Ballinger/Erik Stocklin, Eva Gutowski/Oli White, Matthew Patrick/Stephanie Patrick, Nikita Dragun & Bretman Rock, Nikita Dragun & Matthew Patrick, Tyler Oakley & Andrea Russett
Comments: 30
Kudos: 54





	Curtain Call

**Author's Note:**

> Been working on this one for a long time. I hope you like it!

Even survivors have to die.

Nikita Dragun goes first. She was always the type to live too fast and too hard for life to keep up, and somewhere around her fiftieth birthday, she's struck down by a terminal diagnosis. A brain tumor, the doctor says. A possible complication from the effects of the Collar of Control. In a way, Everlock killed her after all, just like it killed all the rest. But she stays a bad bitch even in her final days, exchanging jokes and memories with her family and friends; this, of course, includes Matt and Bretman, who practically camp out in her hospital room for as long as the doctors and nurses will let them stay. She succumbs to her illness two years after being diagnosed. They bury her in the same graveyard as her long-dead friend, Manny, and the remaining seven survivors smile through their tears at the thought of Nikita and Manny being together again.

Twenty years later, Oli White has a heart attack while playing badminton with his preteen grandson. Eva rushes him to the hospital, but there's nothing that can be done, and Oli is pronounced dead on arrival. He's laid to rest in his native England. Between the eulogies given by his brother, his children, and his wife, there's not a dry eye in the crowd. The remaining six survivors fly out as well, to pay their respects. It's the first time that most of them have ever been to the United Kingdom. Eva makes sure to give them the grand tour while they're there; she especially loves to point out places and things that Oli enjoyed. She's much happier when talking about his life than she is when talking about life after him.

Andrea Russett only lasts a few months after Oli. She dies in her sleep on a cold winter night, three days after Christmas, as the snow falls softly outside her bedroom window. Tyler doesn't find out she's gone until he tries to call her to invite her over for his annual New Year's get-together. He's devastated, of course. At this point, he is the third to lose a survival partner, so the remaining five survivors band together to help support him (as well as Andrea's family, of course). A week after Andrea's funeral, Tyler establishes a charity in her name. He's already got so many charities set up to honor so many of his dear departed friends, but he considers Andrea to be just as important as any of the others, so he pulls out all the stops to tell her story.

Another three years pass before death comes again, and when it does, it comes for Colleen Ballinger, who it's already taken twice already. Third time's the charm. It's influenza, of all things, that lays her low, and everyone agrees that she'd see this as a huge improvement compared to her previous two deaths. She's buried next to her devoted husband, Erik Stocklin, who died the previous year. Her now-adult son, Flynn Stocklin, visits his parents' graves every week, sometimes with flowers, sometimes not. His own children are young adults now. When they smile, it's like Colleen never went anywhere at all. As for the remaining four survivors, they all collectively realize that only half of them are still alive, and they can't help but wonder how long until half becomes none.

Colleen's survival partner, Bretman Rock, makes it another decade after that, still the same bundle of fashionable energy that he was when he survived. But a stroke takes him out in the blink of an eye, and before anyone knows it, he's gone from this world to join Nikita and Manny. His ashes are sprinkled across the sand of one of his favorite Hawaii beaches, as per his will's request. The remaining three survivors are slowly beginning to come to terms with their old age; there are wrinkles on Tyler's face, Eva's hair is going grey, and Matt can't walk anymore without the help of a cane. But their hearts remain as young as they were in their prime, and as they watch their dear friend become part of the beach ("such a beautiful place," Tyler murmurs under his breath), they wonder what's ahead for their dwindling party.

Eva Gutowski departs this world one year later, on the anniversary of her husband's death. They find her in her favorite comfy violet armchair, hugging an old patchwork quilt, smiling serenely. She's buried next to Oli, which means another trip to England for the remaining two survivors. Tyler and Matt are all that's left now. The English hills are beautiful, but nowhere near as beautiful as the twin photos that Tyler keeps in a locket around his neck: one group photo of the men and women who died in the Victorian era all those years ago, and the other, taken in 2021, of the eight survivors, looking forward to a better future than their darkened past. Both men believe that Eva, Bretman, Colleen, Andrea, Oli, and Nikita already found those futures and are now happily reunited with those they lost long ago.

The next to go is Matthew "MatPat" Patrick, who dies a year after Eva. He passes in the hospital, surrounded by his wife, his children, his grandchildren, and even his very young great-grandchildren, By all accounts, he is at peace when he rejoins his friends on the other side. The one remaining survivor, Tyler, gets the call from Oliver Patrick at around seven-thirty in the morning, but it's not until Matt's funeral (his grave, of course, is not far from Rosanna's) that the truth sinks in: they're all gone now. All except Tyler. Funny how it turned out like this, given the mission that long ago became Tyler's life's work. He supposes it's only a matter of time before he, too, goes into the light, but until then, he knows that there is still so much to do to ensure that they're all remembered. It is, after all, what they deserve.

Tyler Oakley is the last survivor standing. He is the last remnant of the horrible massacres that plagued the YouTube community. Even now, in his old age, he refuses to let the world forget the people lost to the nights that so few escaped. He tells all their stories. He maintains dozens of foundations in the victims' honor. He speaks about them every chance he can. It's fitting, in a way, that he is the last, because his soul contains a permanent record of all those who went before—their hopes, their dreams, their loves, their fears, everything that made them who they are. And when his time is finally up at the age of one hundred, he is content, because he knows that he's done enough. He is free to go and see his departed friends again.

And so, the tale ends, but the story lives forever.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, yes, s5 will inevitably make this out of date, but I don't care. I just had to finish it.


End file.
